2017 Winter Reading
The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell. A boisterous careening through the Puritan settlement of Boston. So I can get straight in my head who is a Separatist (Plimouth plantation people who were even MORE rigid, wanted to separate themselves from England) and who is a Puritan (just regular ole' conservative/traditionalist Protestants who were charted by England/believed themselves English, just wanted a purer community who went by the Bible rules). Once you can keep all the Winthrops and Williamses in your head, this is fun, sassy telling. And I love sass and snark. Hey, Scarlet Letter fans! (I know, there's only a few of us.) Anne Hutchinson shows up here and her heresy prefigures that of Hester-baby.
The Radioactive Boy Scout by Ken Silverstein. Here's hoping my own son doesn't try this. This offers a fascinating weaving together of atomic history, chemistry lessons, insights into foundations of the Boy Scouts, and a narrative of one kid's difficult journey. Interesting to see how promotion from Boy Scouts, publicity from the prior era (1960s, when every boy was given a chemistry set), and even information from government played a role, as well as his inherent talents and incapacities. I found the story ultimately sad: his obsessive following of a goal isn't something I can admire. His pursuit of science is amazing, but involves so much loss (of friends, of family, of life possibilities, ultimately of his life at age 39), and knowing that what he built didn't actually further knowledge or even actually work, his dream seemed to come at too high a cost. (P.S. Thank goodness I had recently read The Disappearing Spoon, so was already up on my chemistry. Whew.)
Late Winter 2017:
The Secret Rooms: The True Story of a Haunted Castle, a Plotting Duchess, and a Family Secret (Catherine Bailey)
A university researcher looking for details about the impact on small villages during WW1 instead found a unexplained gap in the diaries, personal papers, letters, official records, etc. of an aristocratic family. This gap causes her to change her entire initial research focus (hey, student writers: it's okay to change topics or directions or opinions when the evidence shows something other than what you were expecting!!). She reconstructs 15-20 years and discovers how ridiculously rich they are (see the list of items and art objects the grand-Duke sells) and yet how ridiculously poor: they can't truly afford the lifestyle of the 1800s, because the cost of maintaining multiple castles, multiple staffs, and trying to show how wealthy and unconcerned they are easily dwarfs any income (which is still practically feudal). The sister gets pimped out (really!) to a tacky, neuvo-riche American in exchange for political favors to cover up the shame (not creepy, just dishonest and ignoble -- I began to get really worried at one point) at the heart of the story. The son (the 9th Duke) spends his dying months painstakingly curating and excising all references to his failure. This highlights the discrepancy in nobility: we think of them as not just wealthy and aristocratic/high-born, but also good and righteous. He so obviously was not.
The Secret Rooms: The True Story of a Haunted Castle, a Plotting Duchess, and a Family Secret (Catherine Bailey)
A university researcher looking for details about the impact on small villages during WW1 instead found a unexplained gap in the diaries, personal papers, letters, official records, etc. of an aristocratic family. This gap causes her to change her entire initial research focus (hey, student writers: it's okay to change topics or directions or opinions when the evidence shows something other than what you were expecting!!). She reconstructs 15-20 years and discovers how ridiculously rich they are (see the list of items and art objects the grand-Duke sells) and yet how ridiculously poor: they can't truly afford the lifestyle of the 1800s, because the cost of maintaining multiple castles, multiple staffs, and trying to show how wealthy and unconcerned they are easily dwarfs any income (which is still practically feudal). The sister gets pimped out (really!) to a tacky, neuvo-riche American in exchange for political favors to cover up the shame (not creepy, just dishonest and ignoble -- I began to get really worried at one point) at the heart of the story. The son (the 9th Duke) spends his dying months painstakingly curating and excising all references to his failure. This highlights the discrepancy in nobility: we think of them as not just wealthy and aristocratic/high-born, but also good and righteous. He so obviously was not.